Hillside collaboration

Holding it together
London, ON
April 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

A cluster of trees rises from the steep hillside, its members working closely together to survive, thrive, and hold the slope together.

If they can figure out that collaboration lies at the root of their life here, then so can we.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #forest #tree #trees #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

It all started with greyscale

There's color in there if you look hard enough
London, ON
April 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I’m on a bit of a monochrome kick this weekend, so thanks for humoring me.

I’m just old enough to remember shooting with film, where black and white photography involved loading up the right kind of film, then sticking it out till the roll was done.

These days, monochrome is just a couple of clicks away on one of my camera’s dials. Or I can even edit them back to monochrome after the fact. It’s easier, more convenient, less of an up-front commitment.

Which, if we’re being brutally honest, feels a little sad. I still remember the first time I checked out a 35mm pocket camera from the photo studio at summer camp, and was told I had two hours to finish the roll and return it.

As I walked alone on the dirt-and-gravel paths through the woods, my 12-year-old brain wrestled with the challenge of telling a story with a limited colour palette.

Fast forward to today, and I’m still figuring it out. Because trees need their story told more now than they ever have, and using various shades of grey is more often than not the ideal way to tell it.

At least that’s how it feels to me.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #forest #root #roots #tree #trees #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Related:

Branching out, May 2021

At the root(s) of it all, May 2021

Game of tones, May 2021

Branching out

Textured
London, ON
April 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

This branch is old, ratty, and well past its prime. Come to think of it, so is the tree to which it's attached.

That's what makes it so much more interesting than anything else in the surrounding valley.

Because beauty is often aged and raw. And I'd rather look for it as it hides in the shadows than settle for the conventional stuff that usually sits in plain view.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #forest #tree #trees #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

On being

Be – don’t try to become.

Osho

At the root(s) of it all

Well anchored
London, ON
April 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We can learn a thing or two from tree roots.

About how they always find a way to hold on no matter what the world throws at them.

About how they can anchor impossibly tall trees.

About the way they do most of their work out of sight, silent heroes of the forest floor.

Maybe more than two things, then.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #forest #root #roots #tree #trees #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Game of tones

Patterns in nature
London, ON
April 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I don't shoot monochrome often enough.

That needs to change, as your entire brain shifts a gear or two when you remove the full palette of color from the equation.

The first time I ever picked up a camera, I shot monochrome. It was magical enough to light a lifelong creative fire in me. Time to get back to where it all began.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the tree.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #forest #tree #trees #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Another sunset, another choice

Thanks, Sun
Middlesex Centre, ON
April 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The world can be ugly or the world can be beautiful.

So which one is it?

I think the answer depends on a few relatively simple factors:

1. Who we choose to spend time with.
2. Where we choose to hang out.
3. How much time we devote to things and activities that soothe our souls.
4. How often we stop and ask ourselves if we’re making the best possible decisions around factors 1 through 3, inclusive.

So I’ll be the guy taking in the sunset with the fam jam, which I believe crowds out all the other stuff.

There: beauty wins out over ugliness. Easy, isn’t it?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sunset #dusk #sky #clouds #light #tree #abstract #landscape #photography #wonderland #ninemile #road #apple #iphone #iphone11 #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Related:

Sunrise, sunset, November 2020

Chasing sunsets with our daughter, August 2019

Another sunset, albeit someone's missing, June 2019

A perfectly imperfect sunset, June 2019

Watching the sky come alive, November 2017

Big sky country, July 2011

Sunrise in Westminster, CO, November 2006

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On Walmart

Most of us know that the Walmart retail colossus is based in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Sam Walton first got his start.

But Bentonville isn't just home to the company's HQ, and the story of the family foundation's influence on this city is, in a word, eye-opening.

Walmart’s Company Town of Bentonville, Arkansas

Bentonville, Arkansas, is home to Walmart’s headquarters. It’s also a town in which the Walton Family Foundation works like a parallel state, creating a kind of twenty-first-century company town.

By Stephanie Farmer

Jacobin

March 27, 2021

Please follow the arrows

This way...
London, ON
May 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Warning: rant ahead.

This is an arrow sticker. It sits on the floor of our local Loblaws grocery store, but there are countless other ones like it in essential publicly-accessible locations around the world. They're there as pandemic-era aids to direct traffic and minimize physical interaction.

If you see one, please follow it.

Because most people don't.

Because the universe seemingly compels them to walk the wrong way down an aisle so they can minimize their step count as they successfully forage for dill pickles.

Because they simply can't be bothered to slightly alter their routine for the safety of others.

Because they left their kindness at the door. Or somewhere else.

Because they're statistically more likely to be wearing their masks below their noses. or walk right through you as if you aren't even there.

Look, I get it. We're all freaking exhausted and irritable. But the only way we're getting out of this will be by looking out for others, and choosing the kinder route.

Ignoring the arrow reflects neither.

So please be both aware and kind. It's really not as difficult as it might seem.

And it might save someone's life.

[/rant]

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #loblaws #grocery #shopping #retail #store #arrow #orange #covid #pandemic #kindness #photography #apple #iphone #iphone11 #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Godspeed, Michael Collins

"Exploration is not a choice, really; it’s an imperative."

Michael Collins

Mr. Collins was the Apollo 11 astronaut who, unlike Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, did not get to land on the moon. While his more famous colleagues descended to the moon in the Lunar Excursion Module and made history, Michael Collins orbited in the Command Module - known as Columbia, often referred to as the loneliest human in history.

He died today, from cancer, at the age of 90, and the world is that much dimmer with his loss.

Powered by the sun...

Emerging
London, ON
April 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

There's a giant tree at the bottom of the big concrete staircase beside the path that winds its way through the valley. It's been here forever, and like most of the trees that surround it in this densely packed riot of nature, its branches have been bare since last autumn.

It was during a sunny late afternoon walk with the dog that I noticed how quickly it had decided to come back to life, with a burst of green that I was certain hadn't been there when we walked past the previous day.

It didn't really come back to life, of course: it was always alive, really, just somewhat hidden beneath the surface.

Maybe this tree is more like us than we thought.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #forest #tree #trees #green #leaf #leaves #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

On having - and making - the time

"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don’t have time', is like saying, 'I don’t want to'."

Lao Tzu

Brookfield Place in the rearview

Cathedral of glass
Toronto, ON
August 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I find myself remembering the cool places we used to get to see, like Toronto's iconic Brookfield Place.

We'll travel there again someday. And to other places, too.

Until then, though, we have pixels and memories to tide us over.

What place do YOU want to get back to?

#toronto #yyz #ontario #canada #throwback #Brookfield #Place #concrete #steel #glass #atrium #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #design #lines #urban #streetphotography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #canon #canon_photography #canonphotography #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Watching newspaper bundles disappear

She reads!
London, ON
April 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We don't see bundled newspapers like this as often as we once did.

While my first real job was delivering Gazette newspapers early in the morning to customers in our neighborhood just north of Montreal, the world has changed quite a bit since then. So much so that these yellowing bundles blowing in the wind beside the sidewalk seemed like a window into a distant past.

And, of course, something for our wonderdog to explore.

It was such a visceral experience then, cutting open the bundles, loading up my canvas bags, carefully balancing everything on my wagon, and setting off in the cool darkness, the smell of the newsprint and the smudged stains of the ink clinging to my hands.

And while globally interconnected digital networks may be far faster and more efficient at delivering the news than any pre-teen kid could ever be, they can't replicate what it felt like to hold one of these in your hand, to feel its heft, to anticipate what lay ahead as you slowly unfolded it at the kitchen table and began to explore it, page by page.

We've lost something between then and now, and technology won't ever be able to replace that sense of deliberate consumption that once framed the way we started the day.

Pity that.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #random #spontaneous #street #streetphotography #newspaper #media #calli #callitheschnauzer #dog #dogs #schnauzerpuppy #schnauzersofinstagram #schnauzergram #schnauzers #photography #apple #iphone #iphone11 #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Still waters run deep

Stare into the standing waves
London, ON
February 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

If still waters run deep, then what are we to make of those same waters when they become turbulent?

It almost doesn't matter.

Because whether it's still or bumpy, shallow or deep, we make our way through it the best we can, no matter what gets thrown in our way.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #heritage #forest #water #thames #river #walkabout #landscape #landscapephotography #nature #naturephotography #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Red grocery carts in the abstract

Get a handle on this
London, ON
July 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

This photo was taken in July 2019. We've changed significantly since then, so much so that I wouldn't take a photo like this today.

Whereas back then we could once linger over the rows of neatly arranged red grocery carts and take our sweet time choosing one without a stuck front wheel - or, taking a stupid picture of them - we now grab what we need and get on with the full-combat-business of grocery shopping during a pandemic.

While I'm still shooting photos along the way, it's a much more rushed process, without the kind of go-lucky wandering that used to mark shopping trips of yore. The world's a different, angrier place now, and if street photography is to happen at all, it's best that it's quick and subtle.

Meanwhile I'm still perpetually stuck with the loser cart. Perhaps it's the price I pay for all those years of breaking the photographic rules in the banana section.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #loblaws #grocery #shopping #carts #red #design #pattern #google #pixel2 #teampixel #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Related:

Green buggies in a row, December 2020

Rust in peace, June 2020

Your carriage awaits, May 2018

Hunting and foraging in the frozen foods section, January 2015

Putting the cart before the horse, July 2012

Caption This 122, May 2009

Thematic Photographic 10 - Patterns, August 2008

Supermarket carts? Or jail? April 2008

Interlocked, February 2006

(Not so) dead wood

Wearing her years
London, ON
April 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

At first glance, this is a dead tree, slowly decaying in the dancing shadows of the forest.

At second glance, there’s a lot more life here than first meets the eye, a richly evolving ecosystem where new life takes root in the old, where the past willingly, deliberately hands itself off to the future.

Which is why we take second glances. To see what would otherwise be missed. To appreciate all that goes on in the otherwise hidden places where most never bother to look.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #forest #tree #trees #abstract #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #texture #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone11 #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Making post-industrial tracks

Where past meets future
London, ON
August 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

There's something to be said for wandering around the remnants of London's industrial history as they slowly transform into businesses of the future.

Such a transformation is already underway here. That's 100 Kellogg Lane to the left of the tracks. Kellogg used to make breakfast cereal here, but its closure a few years ago - thanks to changing morning habits - set the stage for the hulking factory to be rebuilt into an entertainment hub.

It's a showpiece, really, with multiple innovative businesses coming together to create something truly special.

Needless to say, it's something I can't wait to get back to, and I know I'm not the only one.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #random #urban #downtown #dundas #street #industrial #old #kellogg #cereal #factory #rail #neighborhood #history #streetphotography #photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #canon #canon_photography #canonphotography #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Related:

Industrial Age brilliance, September 2023

From cereal factory to showpiece, September 2023

Red velvet dreams, December 2022

My first Christmas market experience, December 2022

Picture window, November 2022

Simple lines far above my head, November 2022

Old brick wall. Many stories. January 2021

Life After Frosted Flakes, March 2019

Deep inside an old cereal factory, August 2018

Kellogg's to London: No cereal for you, December 2013

McCormick/Beta Brands factory burns - No more cookies for you, September 2012

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - On lead poisoning

It's easy to look at footage of some beaten-down factory halfway around the world and assume that the kinds of conditions prevalent there could never happen here.

Then you read a story like this, from a lead battery smelter in Tampa, Florida, and you realize it happens closer to home than we might imagine. With less oversight than these poor employees and their families deserve.

It's a jarring read. But a necessary one.

Poisoned

Hundreds of workers at a Tampa lead smelter have been exposed to dangerous levels of the neurotoxin.

The consequences have been profound.

By Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington, Eli Murray

Tampa Bay Times

March 2021

Pinball wizards at work

Tilted history
Toronto, ON
August 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It’ll be a while before anyone gets back to an arcade.

Thankfully we have pixels to remind us why these places are special.

It’s funny how some things seem to become more precious with time. Childhood Carmi wasn’t much of a fan of arcades. I found them dirty and noisy, with nowhere to sit down.

Yet Adult Carmi (I’m collecting the whole set) seems to have mellowed a bit. And on this before-pandemic summer’s evening in Toronto, I found myself slowly walking through one of the few remaining examples with a wistful sense of nostalgia for what would be lost to time if not for a dwindling pool of passionate business owners.

Time changes us all, hopefully for the better. And somewhere along the way, maybe we’ll find the time to play a game or two.

#toronto #ontario #canada #throwback #pinball #game #gaming #arcade #stilllife #photography #google #pixel2 #teampixel #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything